Owner, David Earling, grew up along the Delaware river in Titusville, New Jersey, with farmers as neighbors and friends. He went off to NYC to find fame and fortune and then returned home with his own family to start Gravity Hill Farm. The name is for the famous section of Pleasant Valley Road where nature defies gravity and pulls your stalled car UP the road! Read about Gravity Hill here.

Like other teens in the area, David thought it was "way cool" and always took his dates to experience the phenomenon, including future wife and farm co-owner, Maria Nicolo. Now they both think it's "way cool" to have their farm defying gravity and can't wait til their kids grow up to appreciate the wonder of it all.

Meet our Farm Manager, Brett Alcaro. He was raised on the Jersey Shore and, after managing a farm in New York, he returns to help lead Gravity Hill. His wife, Germaine, also from the shore, and their son, Oliver, accompany him.
Brett attended the University of Wisconsin after which he worked in his family's business located in Monmouth County. When volunteering on a farm he was caught with the farming bug. It took him from New Jersey to Maine and New York and now back to us here at Gravity Hill Farm.

Before the industrialization of farming started in the 1940s, all farming was essentially "organic" and farms were local and family-run. Consumers knew where their food came from and who grew it. Our farm is built on those traditions and we designed the buildings to honor those customs: barns of red clapboard and white trim and split wood fences dividing growing fields from grazing pastures. Only when you look at the roof do you see the solar panels generating electricity.

For us, the animals on our farm are a way to establish a pace of life that values time differently, that teaches care and responsibility and simple joys. Plus, now that our kids are in school, we have lots of ready-made science projects!

Like any 9 year-old boy, John decided the most interesting project would be about all the different kinds of poop you find at the farm. Here he is with his collaborator, David, demonstrating the compost potential of donkey and llama poop.

Rose still has her incubator and hatched 7 chicks in her bedroom as part of her science project. Unfortunately, 5 of the 7 were roosters which is 5 too many roosters for Gravity Hill Farm. (To see a chick being born in the incubator, visit our Animals Page.)